SHIFTER CHILD
by TheAnimeAsylum
Summary: What happens when there is a flash of titan steam in the woods outside the survey corps base? Eren, Armin and Mikasa investigate, to find something shocking waiting for them...
1. Bonfire

Eren sat by the window, looking out at the powder white snow that blanketed the ground outside. White flakes drifted by the windowpane, and his breath steamed up the cold glass.

"Don't lie on the window like that. Your face will freeze. If you're not careful you'll catch pneumonia"

Eren turned around, scowling.

"Stop babying me. I can do what I want, I'm not gonna catch bloody pneumonia from lying on a window. Leave me alone, Mikasa."

Mikasa looked disapproving, and opened her mouth to reply to Eren.

"S-so what I was saying was that, maybe if we go out and get wood from the forest a-and me and some of the other soldiers build it, then would it be possible, captain?" Armin's voice became louder as he entered the mess hall, tagging behind a tired-looking Captain Levi.

"I don't get it. Why on earth would you brats want to go to all the effort to do that? I really cannot fathom how you think that building a tower of sticks and setting it on fire is going to help the survey corps in any way…"

"B-but it will boost our spirits, captain! I-I mean after the last expedition everyone has been feeling down, you know, as there were quite a large number of casualties… please, sir?"

"Whatever. As long as you shitty brats don't set anything on fire. I have work to do, you are dismissed, Arlert."

"T-thank you, captain!" Armin said, delighted, and hurried over to Eren and Mikasa, who had been watching the conversation. He sat down on the bench next to Eren, and smiled happily.

"So… what was that about then?" Eren asked, sitting up now that there was something more interesting going on.

"Well," Armin said excitedly, "I was thinking, the mood's ben really low lately, and everyone fights better when theyre happy, so why don't we make a bonfire!"

"What for?" Mikasa asked, seeming marginally interested.

"Fun! Back in the cadets we used to muck about, but now that we're in the survey corps, everyone kind of just… well… everyone's thinking about whether or not theyre going to survive the next mission. It's just really… depressing."

Eren had perked up, looking excited now that he had something to do.

"Armin, that's a great idea! Lets do it, right now. We can go into the forest; there'll be loads of wood we can use out there! Come on, Mikasa." Eren exclaimed, pushing back the bench, standing up and walking towards the door.

"Eren, wait up! You'll get lost if you go by yourself!" Armin shouted, running after Eren.

* * *

Levi sat in his office, sorting through a thick pile of documents that sat on his desk. He sighed, and thumped the papers down on his desk. Getting out of his chair, he walked over to the window, and stood there looking out over the snow-topped trees. It was at that moment that he noticed something that looked out of place.

A thin column of smoke was rising over the treetops, billowing in the wind. Levi pressed his palm against the window, as shock crossed briefly over his normally emotionless face.

"Titan smoke…" he breathed. A picture of the Armin, Eren and Mikasa out in the woods alone flashed through his mind. Turning round, he dashed out of the room, grabbing his cloak just as he left, and with a flash of green, he disappeared down the corridor.

* * *

"Armin, d'you think this ones good enough?" asked Eren, picking up a small stick that had been lying on the leafy floor.

"It's a bit damp. We'll need dry wood if we're going to make a fire." said Armin, examining Eren's stick.

"I got one." Mikasa announced, coming out from behind a tree, carrying an enormous oak branch on her shoulders.

Eren dropped his stick.

"Mikasa, that's great! Where did you find it?!"

Before Mikasa could answer, a deafening boom shook the forest. A flock of birds rose into the air, cawing in alarm.

"What… what the hell was that?" said Eren, looking in the direction of the noise, and seeing smoke drifting out of the trees.

"It's titan steam," whispered Armin, looking terrified. "B-but that's impossible, there shouldn't be any titans inside the wall… unless…"

"Unless it's a titan shifter. Someone else like Eren and Annie." said Mikasa, finishing Armin's sentence.

Eren was already moving away through the trees, shouting back to Mikasa and Armin.

"Come on. Its not that far, we need to check it out."

"But Eren…!" Armin squeaked.

" It'll be ok, Armin. I can protect you, remember? I'm allowed to use my titan if it's an emergency."

"Come on, Armin. We have to go and check it out." Mikasa said quietly but firmly, striding forwards into the bushes where Eren had disappeared. Armin followed, looking wary but reassured by his friends.

The three broke into a sprint, running as fast as they could through the forest. Branches whipped Eren's face as he ran, as if warning him not to go any further, and he heard ominous noises coming from the direction of the steam.

A loud, clear crack came from up ahead, and the snapping and twisting of branches rang through the now silent forest. Eren began to rethink his actions, wondering just what it was they were getting themselves into.

* * *

Levi rode through the forest, Hanji at his side.

"So what you're saying is there is titan steam coming from the forest, which may or may not be coming from a beautiful new specimen of titan shifter, and as always, Eren, Mikasa and Armin are heading straight for it?" Hanji spoke rapidly, her eyes agleam with the prospect of a new titan shifter.

"Exactly. Now it would be helpful if you get your shitty glasses focused on the road and not on your gruesome titan fantasies." Levi snapped back, spurring his horse faster as the sound of snapping trees echoed through the woods.

 _Stupid, idiotic kids. Always have to go poking their noses in where they don't belong…_ Levi thought to himself as he rode through the trees, Hanji practically jumping up and down in her saddle with excitement.

 _Just what are we going to meet when we reach that steam?_ Wondered the captain as he headed closer and closer to the one of the worst days he had ever had.


	2. Forest

**CHAPTER 2**

They ran, the sound of snapping and cracking branches echoing through the forest. Armin lagged behind, panting. Mikasa ran just behind Eren, who was sprinting as fast as he could.

A hissing, grating sound came from ahead. It was wild and animal, and sounded as if whatever was making it was in a great deal of pain. Armin's eyes widened, and he tried to catch up to Eren and Mikasa.

They reached a clump of small, gnarly trees, their branches and trunks entwined. The leaves provided cover for the group, and they crouched behind them, trying not to make any noise that would give away their position. Eren shuffled closer, and made a small gap in the leaves to see through.

His eyes widened and he fell backwards, scrambling away from the leaves.

"What is it Eren? Is it a titan?" Mikasa whispered sharply, gripping Eren's arm so he didn't make any more noise.

Eren panted, and he looked up at her grey, cold eyes.

"I think you better see for yourself," he whispered back, yanking his arm away from her.

Mikasa crawled over to the gap, and looked out.

The bushes were just behind a clearing in the woods. The light didn't reach through the trees as well as the rest of the forest, so it was hard to see. But Mikasa could still make out what was in the middle of the clearing, and it chilled her to the bone.

A dark, writhing shape lay in the middle of the clearing. It was definitely a titan, but relatively small, around 9 meters tall. Its face was slightly less human than the other titans they had encountered, more reptilian. It had large, black eyes with yellow pupils. Snake-like nostrils gave its face a flat look, and below lay a wide mouth full of millions of small, sharp teeth.

But what stood out most about this titan was its body. Its head, shins and forearms were covered in skin, and everything else apart from its neck and chest was muscle. This was normal enough compared to the other shifters. But this titan's main body, from its neck to its hips, was completely translucent. Mikasa could see its stomach.

And she could see the things inside of it.

A face twisted with pain and fear, its mouth a black, screaming hole. An arm. A leg, torn off at the joint. What looked like the remains of a torso, guts spilling out of it like red ribbons.

Mikasa gagged, horrified. Her eyes travelled upwards.

She squinted, trying to make it out in the weak light. No, that couldn't be right. If the titan's stomach was down there, then why was there a person, stuck in the neck?

Oh.

 _So this is what Eren looks like,_ she thought to herself, _when he's inside his titan…_

She was shocked to see that the person controlling the titan was a child. She looked no more than six or seven, with blonde, almost white hair that streamed down her back. Her eyes were closed, as if sleeping, and she looked completely calm.

However, the titan completely contradicted its controller. It had started to writhe and jerk violently, hitting branches with its long arms and making the odd hissing noise they had heard before. Armin came up beside Mikasa and whispered rapidly.

"Mikasa, I think this is a really bad idea, we should go, r-right now, before anything else happens…"

"HEY? HELLO?"

"Oh no…" Armin went white.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"That _idiot!_ What does he think he's _doing?!"_ Mikasa hissed, turning round to look through the gap.

Eren stood in the middle of the clearing, right in front of the writhing, jerking titan, waving his arms and trying to get the controllers attention.

"Stupid, _idiotic_ -"

Mikasa stopped abruptly as she saw what was happening.

The titan stopped jerking, and moved its head to look at Eren. A black, forked tongue tasted the air.

It moved its long spindly arm towards Eren.

"Umm…" Eren hesitated, nearly stepping backwards.

The arm shot out, grabbing him with long, skinless fingers, squeezing his ribs hard.

"EREN!" Mikasa yelled, and ran out from behind the bushes, screaming bloody murder at the titan.

But she was too late.

The titan had hardened its other hand, and she watched helplessly-

as it plunged a crystal finger deep into Eren's chest-

it licked the red, shiny liquid off its face with its long black tongue-

and Mikasa ran, raising a stick that she had unconsciously picked up above her head-

A flash of green, and she looked up as the captain flew over her head.

"STAY BACK, ACKERMAN," Levi shouted, as he rushed toward the titan on ODM gear, raising two flesh-pairing blades above his head-

 ** _*SLICE*_**


	3. Problem Child

**CHAPTER 3**

 _ ***SLICE**_ _ *****_

The titan hissed in pain, as its hand was swiftly separated from its arm. Eren dropped to the floor, unconscious from blood loss.

"Ackerman, move him somewhere safe while I take care of this!" Levi shouted over his shoulder, while advancing towards the titan.

"Wait!" Armin shouted, suddenly standing next to Mikasa, his face set in determination. "You can't kill it, captain! It's a shifter, there's someone inside! Look!"

Levi paused for a second, looking up at the nape of the titans neck. The girl inside twitched her fingers, and as he looked closely, her eyelids moved as she tried to open them.

"WHAT IS THIS I HEAR ABOUT A SHIFTER!?" Hanji shouted with glee, as she landed on the ground, red hair messy as always.

She dropped to her knees, an expression of utter delight on her face.

"OF COURSE YOU CANT KILL IT! CANT YOU SEE HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS!?" she shouted excitedly. "I absolutely _have_ to know what that translucent flesh feels like, and I'm sure Commander Erwin will want to know too!"

Levi turned towards her, and sent her a look that could send the colossal titan running for its mother.

"It would vastly improve the situation if you and your shitty glasses stop orgasming over titan flesh and help me cut her out." He said, gesturing towards the girl inside the titan with his blade.

"Oh, well, that's not very nice… but for the sake of science, I'll help you! Of course, you probably can't reach up there yourself, what with your 'height deficiency'…" Hanji remarked, saying the last sentence under her breath, and strode over to help.

Mikasa held an unconscious Eren, watching him closely as his wound slowly regenerated. Armin walked over and picked something small and shiny off the ground. Mikasa watched him.

"What is it?" she questioned.

"O-oh, just a bit of the titan's crystal. It's quite strange… compared to Annie's crystal it looks more clear, like glass, but it seems to have the same, if not more, resistance…"

The sounds of shattering metal made the two both look over to where Levi and Hanji both stood, both holding blades snapped clean in half.

"Well, whaddaya know, it's not flesh at all, it's titan crystal! This is absolutely amazing… the girl inside must be getting oxygen to her blood from the titan's muscle… which means that this titan can breathe!"

"Dammit! How are we supposed to get her out if we can't break it?!" said Levi, throwing his broken blade on the floor in frustration.

It was at that moment, as the blade clattered against the floor, that a flash of blindingly bright light and an ear-shattering **BOOM** came from the titan.

Levi and Hanji were thrown into the air as the titan's body exploded, bits of titan flesh thrown out into the air along with small, deadly bits of crystal. Armin covered his face and Mikasa shielded Eren from the shrapnel, while Hanji and Levi just barely managed to anchor themselves to a tree with ODM gear.

It was over in about three seconds, and Armin, with ears ringing from the noise, staggered to his feet. He squinted across to where the titan had been, to see that it was completely gone, no trace of it left except for the small girl, lying serenely on the ground as if nothing at all had happened.

He rushed over, and knelt beside her. She seemed to be completely unharmed by the explosion, and was still unconscious.

"Phew! What on earth happened there?' exclaimed Hanji, dropping to the ground with Levi, before noticing the titans absence.

"It blew itself up? Wow, this is a truly unique specimen…" said Hanji absent-mindedly. She noticed Armin, who had picked the small girl up in his arms and was carrying her over.

He set the child down on the floor and looked up at Hanji and Levi. Mikasa watched from where Eren was lying.

"So… what do we do with her?"

* * *

They walked back to the castle, Mikasa and Levi leading the horses that were carrying an unconscious Eren and the comatose small girl. Evening sunlight shone in patches through the leaves overhead, dappling the floor, which was already covered in snow. Hanji was walking with a spring in her step, babbling on about the girl's titan, talking half to Armin and half to herself.

"I mean, it must be some kind of survival mechanism, so that no harm can come to the controller, although you have to wonder how much it costs, having an advantage like that. Obviously the titans grew lungs; you can actually see them as proof! But I wonder, the girl didn't seem very in sync with her titan, they were almost like separate beings…".

Hanji theorised like this all the way back, but Levi gave no hint of annoyance. He seemed lost in a world of his own, thinking about other times when he had made the wrong decisions, and left people he knew defenceless and alone…

"Here we are! Well, Levi, may I take the child to the medical room? I'll need to take Eren as well, just to make sure he'll be alright," said Hanji brightly as they reached the entrance to the survey corps base.

Levi snapped out of his daydream.

"Do what you think is best. I expect you to be in my office at eight if the girl awakens and tell me what you've found out. Ackerman, Arlert, I expect you'll want to go with Hanji, do what you wish, you have the rest of the day off anyway. I have to tell the commander about this." And with that, Levi strode off across the icy courtyard towards the commander's office.

"Well then. To the medical room it is!" said Hanji happily, leading her horse towards the other side of the courtyard.

* * *

The wind blew against the window, rattling the pane. Eren could hear rain pattering softly against the glass. He groaned. His chest hurt like hell, and his head felt fuzzy…

He tried to force his eyes open, and was met with a blurry mess of colours. They swam into place, and he realised he was in the medical room. He sat up (with considerable effort) and looked around.

A vase of flowers sat on his bedside table.

There was a fresh pair of clothes laid out for him on his sheets.

A pair of honey coloured eyes stared at him from under the bed.

Nothing out of the ordinary…

His aching brain finally computing what he had just saw, he yelped and fell straight off his bed.

"OWW!"

The door flew open and Mikasa rushed into the room, followed closely by Armin.

"Eren? What's wrong? What are you doing on the floor?" asked Mikasa, coming over to help him.

" Mikasa… under the bed…"

Armin looked puzzled, and bent down to look under Eren's bed.

"What's wrong? There's nothing- AAHH!"

Armin reeled backwards, holding his nose as blood streamed down his face, and the small child who had been under the bed raced out from underneath. She hissed at Armin, and ran for the exit. Mikasa, already at the door, grabbed the child's fist and twisted it behind her back. The small fair-haired girl fought against Mikasa ferociously, kicking and biting her, but Mikasa managed to pin the girl up against the wall.

Hanji burst into the room, and found Eren lying on the floor in a bundle of sheets, Armin kneeling and holding his face while blood spattered on the floor, and Mikasa locked in a death stare with the girl she had pinned down.

Hanji looked completely at a loss for words until the girl tore her eyes away from Mikasa and growled at her.

She went over to Eren, helped him stand up and went into a drawer in the corner of the room. Pulling out a coil of rope, she handed it to Mikasa, who promptly tied the girl's hands and ankles together.

Handing a tissue to Armin she finally spoke.

"Why don't we all calm down, and you can explain what I just witnessed."

After Armin had finished describing what had happened to Hanji, she stood up and addressed the three of them.

"Well, I think that the best course of action here is for you three to go to your dorms, and I can report this to Levi. It's getting late, and tomorrow you have training, so try and get some sleep."

"But, captain, what'll happen to her?" Armin asked, referring to the girl, who was now struggling against her bonds on the floor and shooting the group occasional foul looks.

Hanji furrowed her brow, thinking hard. She sighed, and turned to Mikasa.

"Isn't there a spare room in the girls dormitories?"

"Yes... but how are we supposed to know if she's escaped?" asked Mikasa.

"We won't. That room doesn't have any windows she can break, and I can lock the door, so we'll just have to take the risk. There's nowhere else we can put her."

Mikasa turned, and looked over at the small, struggling child. Looking thoroughly displeased, she went over and untied the kid's ankles. The girl stood up, looking daggers at Mikasa.

Hanji placed a hand on her forehead, and sighed deeply.

"Well, that's sorted. Now I just have to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to explain this to Levi…"


	4. Demonstration

_**Hey, TheAnimeAsylum here! Just wanted to say thank you to all who have reviewed, the more reviews I get the more I'll write**_ _ **. Yes, I know my chapters are short, sorry, but I have a shit ton of homework at the moment, so to make up for that I'm trying to post a new (short) one whenever I have the time to write. If you want me just to make longer chapters and post them less frequently, I'm happy with that, just message me! Enjoy the longer-than-usual chapter…**_

 **CHAPTER 4**

Eren woke up in his and Armin's dormitory room, after being discharged from the medical room the previous night. He rubbed his eyes and got out of bed, decided he couldn't be bothered to go and actually wake Armin up himself, so just chucked a pillow into the top bunk.

"MMPHHH!"

"There ya go. Wake up sleeping beauty, we have practise with Levi today."

Gasping, Armin threw off Eren's pillow and shook his messy blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Why cant you just wake me up like normal people do…" he complained, before climbing down from the bunk to get dressed.

A few minutes later Eren and Armin emerged fro their room, to join the crowd of noisy soldiers heading down the stairs to the mess hall.

"HOW'S IT GOING, BONFIRE BOY?" came a certain, snarky voice from the top of the stairs.

"JUST FINE, HORSEFACE." shouted back Eren, not even needing to turn around to know that jean's eyes had narrowed and that he had started pushing his way through the crowd to get to him.

"Walk faster," Eren whispered to Armin, "Jean's heading this way…"

They emerged into the mess hall, loud chatter reaching their ears as they joined the rest of the survey corps for breakfast.

Spotting Mikasa, Eren headed towards her, Armin walking off to join the queue and get him and Eren some breakfast.

"Woah… what happened to you guys?" Eren said, sliding into a space next to Mikasa.

The girls round the table all looked like they hadn't caught a wink of sleep, their faces haggard and weary.

Connie, who was the grinning widely, chose to answer Eren's question.

"Well, Eren, according to Sasha here, the girl you brought back caused just a teeny bit of trouble…"

Sasha, whose head had been lying on the table, looked up and scowled.

"Yeah Eren, we didn't sleep at all last night thanks to your shifter girl. She kept banging on the door, trying to get out, and she moved all the furniture about and trashed the entire room! She wouldn't _shut up_ , kept banging around in there, even Krista couldn't sleep and she was all the way at the end of the corridor! And to top it all," Sasha said, banging her forehead down on the table, " there isn't any bread left at the serving hatch! Worst morning _ever_ …."

Eren looked down, guilty. A bowl thumped down in front of him as Armin sat down next to him.

"Sorry, there was only porridge left…"

Eren looked down at the bowl of grey slop and slowly pushed it over to Sasha, who accepted it joyfully and dug in.

"Eren, that's not good for you, you know. You need to eat..." said Mikasa disapprovingly.

"Yeah bonfire boy, eat your breakfast. Perhaps if you get your strength up you can have a go at actually beating me in training."

Jean sat down beside Connie, smirking like always.

Eren ignored him, instead looked over to the captain's table. Erwin sat at the head of the table, looking bored as Hanji sat gesturing and talking animatedly to him and Mike, obviously explaining to him the events that had happened yesterday. Strangely enough, Levi was nowhere to be seen. _I wonder what he has in store for us in training today,_ Eren thought to himself.

"Well," Connie stood up, breaking the silence, "me and Sasha are going, we don't wanna be late for Levi's lesson again… c'mon, Sasha, wake up…"

Sasha took her head off the table and followed Connie out.

"We should be going as well." said Eren to Armin and Mikasa, and the three stood up to follow Connie and Sasha out into the training grounds.

Levi stood, waiting for them in the middle of the field, Hanji by his side. It was a cold but sunny day, and the snow from yesterday had melted, leaving the grass underfoot slightly damp and covered in dew.

Behind him Eren could make out a large, cornered off rectangle.

"What d'you think that's for?" he whispered to Armin, pointing at the rectangle.

"No idea. It's probably for the lesson, but I can't imagine what it will be used for…" he answered back, looking puzzled. "Uh oh, Hanji's with him… that can't mean anything good." Armin added.

By now the rest of the 104th squad had filtered out, and they stood in line on the field, waiting for Levi to start the training.

As Eren looked around more, he realised there were more than just the 104th squad arriving, as other survey corps soldiers were slowly joining them.

Levi's expression did not change; obviously this was to be a group lesson.

He folded his arms and inspected them, then spoke.

"Well, you're actually on time today. That's an improvement." He said, looking straight at Sasha and Connie.

"You may have notice the squared off area of the field behind me. This will be used for todays lesson, so pay attention. What we're doing today is a little bit unorthodox, so we're going to have some other soldiers standing by, just in case. Also, Squad Leader Hanji will be assisting me today. " Hanji waved, and stepped forward to speak.

"Good morning, soldiers. Today's lesson has been arranged by Commander Erwin, who has asked me to explain it to you. Let me call your attention to this speci-… err, girl. As you may have heard, yesterday there was an accident in which we captured a titan shifter that had appeared in the woods. This girl is that shifter."

Mutters ran through the group, people staring uneasily at the small girl who was being led on to the field by a soldier, her hands bound and her head held high. She stared right back at the crowd, not scared or intimidated in any way.

"As many of you know, or don't in fact, shifters are humans who can turn into titans at will, and control them. It has come to our attention that some of you have never actually seen a shifter titan, or know how to identify one. The purpose of today's lesson is to teach you exactly that."

Whispers ran like wildfire round the group, and many people began to fidget uneasily. What exactly was going to happen? Was the girl going to turn into a titan?

"Ok, so, if you could all step back a bit. Don't worry, we have some survey corps veterans on hand, just in case anything goes wrong… but of course, it's all going to be fine!" Hanji said optimistically, though her words seemed to agitate the soldiers even more.

The girls hands were untied, and she walked into the middle of the cordoned off square. The soldiers held their breath, wondering what was going to happen next.

The child smiled at their anxiety, and accepted a small pocketknife from Hanji. She crossed her left hand over to her right side and promptly stabbed the knife into her shoulder. She did all this smoothly, not even wincing as the knife sunk into her flesh, as if she had gone through it a million times.

Bright light spiralled into the air, and the sound of the explosion caused the crowd to cover their ears. Wind whipped across their faces, and some of the soldiers were looking positively terrified by now.

At last it subsided, and there stood the titan, taller than it had been in the forest, about 13 or so meters this time. The crowd gasped, and people began to back away.

"Leave if you want," said Levi, stepping forwards. "But I will personally make sure that all those who refuse to take this lesson will be in the front scouting position on the next mission, as close to the titans as you can get."

Those who had been backing away stopped instantly, and decided that between the two choices, the lesson had the least risk of 'death by titan'.

The girl's titan stood up straight, and held out its arms so that Hanji could point out everything.

"So, as you can see, this titan is the ideal specimen for this lesson, as it is almost completely transparent. Now, this is because of a particular ability, which we call 'hardening'. As you can see, this crystal like substance cannot be broken by flesh-paring blades…" here she nodded to Levi, who deployed his ODM gear hooks into the titan's flesh, and swung towards its torso, swinging his blades towards it. The soldiers watched as the blades snapped, while the crystal was left without even a scratch.

"Ok, you may have notice that the girl is situated in the titan's neck area which…"

Hanji continued going over stuff that Eren and the rest of the 104th squad already knew, and the girl's titan complied to all of her requests to reposition itself in particular ways, so that the soldiers could properly see how a shifter titan's anatomy worked.

Eren's mind began to wander, and he found himself thinking about how on earth Hanji had got the girl to consent to having her titan examined and shown to the soldiers _. I mean_ , Eren thought to himself, _she wouldn't even tell us her name when we got her, let alone tell us how she ended up in the middle of the forest inside the wall…_

At last, the lesson was over, and they were dismissed until after lunchtime, when they was supposed to be more training with Levi, this time being an advanced ODM gear manoeuvre lesson.

Levi came over to the 104th squad and said quietly,

"This squad is to wait behind, Hanji has a task for you."

The crowd began slowly dispersing, until only the 104th squad was left behind. Connie and Sasha were fooling around, kicking each other's legs and trying to make the other fall out of line.

Another large **BOOM** came from the cordoned off square, as the girl's titan exploded and left the girl sitting on the grass, a cloud of titan smoke coiling around her. Hanji went over to help her stand up, as she seemed quite tired by the length of time she had spent in her titan.

She refused Hanji's outstretched hand, and got up by herself shakily. Hanji accompanied her over to the squad, where Levi was still standing. The girl stood in front of them, next to Hanji, looking straight at the group with unblinking, honey-coloured eyes.

"Ok," Hanji spoke, rubbing her hands together. " So, this squad is the one that knows the most about titan shifters and so on, thanks to Eren here! So I'm entrusting you with a job. As you know, the survey corps is a _little_ short staffed at the moment, and everyone has something to do, so there's no one left to look after her," she said, gesturing to the little girl. " So I'm afraid, what with you being the squad we can trust _most_ , you're going to have to look after her.

"Only for the week, mind you. I'm sure we'll find someone else to look after her for you; it might take some time though. Also, this means that if you look after her well, you get certain privileges, such as time off, less lessons, first pick at the mess hall hatch," (Sasha looked up at this) "and so on. Of course, me, Levi and the commander will be watching to make sure any mishaps don't occur. All clear?"

Eren raised his hand.

"What is it, Eren?"

"Umm, I was wondering, how did you get her to cooperate?"

"It was the strangest thing. We asked her, 'what can we give you to make you work with us?' and all she wanted was paper, a few pencils, and a rubber. I guess she just really likes drawing. Remember, she's only a little child. She just wants to keep herself alive. And anyway, so far, she seems to be behaving."

The girl frowned, obviously annoyed at being talked about as if she wasn't there.

Krista bent down, and looked the girl in the eyes.

"Well, if we're going to look after you, we're going to need to know your name, aren't we? Would you mind telling me what it is?"

The girl looked up at Krista with her wide, innocent eyes.

"Fae… that's what I'm called." She said it strangely, as if she had only just remembered her name.

Krista smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Fae. Don't worry; we'll look after you. Would you like to come with me and the rest of the girls, and we can give you a tour of the dormitories?"

"Y-yeah. I would." Fae said, in a small, soft voice.

Krista held out her hand. Fae took it, and began walking with Krista, back inside. Ymir, Sasha and Mikasa followed.

Eren watched the small child's white-blond hair disappear inside the castle.

 _Fae…_ he thought to himself.

 _What a strange name._

 _A strange name, for an even stranger child…_

 _ **Well, there ya go. I'm tired as hell now, so I'm gonna post this and then go to sleep. Hopefully another chapter tomorrow thanks for reading this one! (Eren sounds like such a pedo at the end, oh well XD…) p.s. please tell me in the reveiws section if there are any mistakes in my work, as im a grammar freak when writing and i HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT.**_

 _ **p.p.s, just so u know im definitley not gonna turn this entire story into "lets make eren and friends look after small children because fuck actual storylines its cute" kinda fanfiction...**_

 _ **well, see ya next chapter. thanks for reading :)**_


	5. Notepad

**CHAPTER 5**

After the lesson, the boys had retired to Connie and Jean's dormitory. Connie was currently grilling Eren and Armin on exactly how they had found Fae, while Jean was reading up in the top bunk, obviously not to happy that his and Connie's room was being used for the meeting. Reiner and Berthold were listening and occasionally contributing to Connie's questions.

"So, why did you investigate without going back for help? I mean I could have been able to defeat the titan single handedly, if you'd asked me to..." Connie grinned and raised his voice slightly so that Jean could hear him.

"Hey Jean, _why the long face_?"

"Shut it, Q-ball. And could you keep it down? I would prefer not to

listen to The Amazing Adventures Of Eren Jaeger, thanks."

"Come on, calm down Jean, we're only asking you to talk..." said Reiner, smiling.

"You know what, I'm going for a walk." said Jean, chucking his book to the end of his bed and climbing down the ladder. He walked across the room and left, slamming the door behind him.

Connie grimaced apologetically and turned to the others.

"Sorry, he's been a bit tetchy lately... Oh well, he'll come back at some point. So Eren, let's continue..."

Jean walked down the corridor, fuming.

Why couldn't Eren just piss off, just because he was a titan shifter he thought he could do whatever he wanted, he was so annoying...

Jean rounded a corner and was too busy thinking about the many ways he could humiliate Eren that he didn't hear the pattering of small feet running down the hallway.

"Aarrgh!"

A small white-blonde head slammed into him, and he lost his balance and fell over backwards.

" I'm so sorry, Jean! Fae, apologise!" came Krista's worried voice from along the corridor.

Jean looked up and saw Fae standing over him, clutching a drawing pad and a pencil.

"S-sorry..." she muttered.

Jean got onto his elbows, and saw Krista walking hurriedly towards them.

"It's ok, it didn't hurt. Just look where you're going next time." Jean said to Fae, who stood there reproachfully.

"Sorry Jean, she's been a bit restless after we finished the tour and I can't get her to calm down. She said she wanted to meet everyone else..."

Jean looked down at Fae, her white-blonde hair messy and falling into her eyes.

What the hell, I have nothing better to do, he thought to himself.

"Krista, if you want I can look after her for you. I have nothing else to do..."

Krista smiled. "Really? That would be great! Are you sure though? She is a bit of a handful..."

"It's fine, I'm pretty sure if I can kill a 14 meter tall naked giant then I can definitely look after a six year old kid by myself."

"Six and a half." corrected Fae.

"All right then. Introduce her to everyone else. She'll probably just want to draw after that... Bring her back to the girl's dorms by seven, ok?"

"Sure. Whatever. Come on, Fae."

Jean walked back to the dormitories, Fae skipping along beside him.

"What's the midget mans name? The one who's really grumpy all the time?" she asked suddenly.

"Huh? Oh... Do you mean Captain Levi?"

"Yeah! That's it. I drew him. Wanna see?"

She held up her notepad, showing Jean an almost perfect sketch of the captains face.

"Wow... That's amazing... Where did you learn to draw like that?"

She smiled at his reaction. "I taught myself. I like drawing."

They had arrived at Connie and Jeans' dormitory by now, and they could hear muffled laughter coming from inside.

Jean pushed open the door, letting Fae walk inside before he entered.

"Hey, Jeans' back! And he brought a guest."

"I met Krista. She was looking after her and seemed worn out so I said we'd look after her." explained Jean.

"Hello." said Fae, who seemed completely at home. She went over and sat on the bottom bunk.

"Fae, is it?" asked Connie. "Well, I'm Connie, that's Reiner, Berthold,

Armin and Eren. Nice to meet you."

Fae stared at Eren.

"You're the one who tried to talk to Faullen."

"What? Who's Faullen?" Eren asked, looking confused.

"My... What do you people call them... My titan?"

"Oh. You gave it a name?" Eren asked.

"Yeah. Doesn't yours have one?" Fae asked, confused.

"No, mine doesn't have a name. It's just... me. Wait, how did you know that I'm a titan shifter?"

"Faullen told me. He knows a lot of stuff." Fae answered vaguely.

She got out her pencil and began to sketch on her pad, obviously hinting she didn't want to talk anymore.

The group shared a look. This child was even stranger than they had thought... She talked about her titan as if it had a mind of its own, as if it wasn't part of her.

"So, does anyone know why Commander Erwin is visiting? " Connie said, trying to lighten the mood.

As Armin and Connie talked about possible reasons for the commander's visit, Eren watched Fae sketching in her notebook. She really had some skill, and he was amazed by how fluidly her pencil moved across the page. She noticed him looking, and held up the notepad for him to see what she had been drawing.

It was a perfect likeness of Hanji, but she was drawn with the expression that often appeared when she showed her darker side, the one that was cold and threatening. Eren was slightly taken aback by this, but Fae did not seem to notice, instead taking a new page in her notebook and starting to sketch again.

"Hey Eren? Can you tell us something?" asked Berthold in a quiet voice, so that Fae didn't hear.

"You know Fae's titan? Did it seem kind of... independent to you?"

"Yeah, it did. Like, you could see her inside the titan, and she looked all peaceful, but her titan, it was thrashing around like it was in pain or something…"

Berthold and Reiner shared a look, but Eren couldn't figure out why.

"What is it?"

"Oh, um…" Berthold looked to Reiner for reassurance. He nodded discreetly, and Berthold continued.

"Well it was a… a rumour, in our village, that there were titan shifters, and there were particular titan shifters who had more… advantages than others. But there was always a price for these advantages, and the price was the controller and the titan would grow apart, eventually becoming separate entities. In some cases they would grow so apart that the titan could no longer be controlled, and then they would… they would see the person inside of themselves… and they would rip them out, digging into their own flesh, and the two would die together, but at the same time, apart… the rumour called them the Parted Ones. O-of course," Berthold hastily added, "it was a rumour, it wasn't true, and anyway, our village is gone now…"

Eren took all of this in, noting Berthold's hasty correction of himself. He looked over at Fae, who was still drawing something he couldn't quite make out.

"So, what were these… advantages… that those shifters had?" he asked quietly.

"Well, it was a wide range of things, depending on the shifter. One was seeing into the future…. another was mind reading. There were some more, but I can't remember them…"

Jean climbed down from the bunk.

"What are you drawing?"

Fae looked up and gave him a grin.

There was something odd about it; it appeared slightly crazed, wild, animalistic.

It looked as if there was something terribly, terribly wrong with that expression.

She handed him the piece of paper slowly, still smiling the grotesque smile.

He took one look at it, and flinched horribly.

He stayed completely still, eye wide, and the rest of the boys could see his hand shaking as he stared at the piece of paper.

"Jean? Are… are you okay?" asked Connie, positively worried.

"What's wrong, Jean?" Armin asked. "What is it?"

Jean, still standing stock still, staring at the piece of paper in his hand, answered in a thick, terrified voice.

"It's… it's Marco…. She drew him."

"Umm, okay. What's so bad about that? Sure it's odd, but…" asked Eren, tailing off as Jean turned round.

He had gone completely white, an expression of utter terror on his face.

"Its not just that. She drew him…

She drew him dead."

* * *

 **OHH SHIITT well there ya go! jesus i didnt expect Fae to be so creepy... thank you to all who have reveiwed and/or followed this story so far :) it keeps me going! well, im gonna start doing a thing. _shoutout to Raygha Raikouga for following and reviewing every chapter of this story so far!_**

 **P.S. this story takes place _after_ marco died... just in case you were wondering. **

**song i listened to while writing this: Radiohead- Idioteque**

 **thank you for reading :D !**


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